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GPS technology is so ubiquitous now that it can be difficult to remember a day when you could not get out your phone and find out exactly where you are in the world. However, it is a very recent development that could be refused in the future. GPS relies on a network of satellites that could be damaged, blocked or destroyed. You also can not get a good GPS lock when you are in the ground or near tall buildings. There may be an alternative, however. Imperial College London and engineering firm M Squared have developed a new "quantum accelerometer" capable of providing accurate localizations without an external system.
Navigation with accelerometers has been possible for some time. Your phone has an accelerometer that records movement and orientation. However, it is not practical to use this technology for large scale navigation. An accelerometer measures movement, so you can use it to find out where you are if you have a good point of reference. Microsoft has released an inland navigation application called Way guide on Android several years ago who does that. The problem is that the accelerometers are not perfect – they lose an inch here and there, and these errors get worse over time until you do not know where you are.
The quantum accelerometer at Imperial College London could solve this problem because it is extremely accurate. Although the device is nominally portable, it is not really compact or easy to use. Quantum mechanics tells us that all matter has a wave property, but that it is very difficult to observe in everyday life. Ultra-cold atoms display their wave properties more prominently, this is the key to the quantum accelerometer.
Imperial College London used a powerful M Squared laser system to cool a cloud of atoms at very low temperatures until the appearance of the wave was visible. When the atoms pass through the accelerometer chamber, the wave property is affected by the motion. Researchers used a laser interferometer to monitor perturbations in quantum waves, allowing the system to track movements with great accuracy.
S0, the accelerometer knows when it moves with great precision and so knows where it is at all times based on its starting point. Currently, the system measures motion on a single axis, but it should be possible to resize the design to measure the three axes and three directions of rotation for complete navigation.
The team stated that the device as it currently exists could be implemented on ships or trains to navigate without GPS access. However, it is far too big to fit in your phone yet. Lasers make it too big. Maybe one day you will have a quantum accelerometer in your pocket, but not so soon.
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